Attendant vs Guardian
The attack that was supposed to introduce me to a world of pain or kill me in Tessa's eyes was sliced in half like butter.
I peered ahead at the figure that stood in front of me, the figure responsible for saving me and extinguishing the flames said to burn me down.
I didn't even place my hands up to cover my face from the blast shockwaves of the exploding magic.
This time, I wanted to see for myself what my guardian spirit could do, and that display of power and calm assured me that I was gonna be safe as long as he was here with me.
Mercy stood there in front, he and Tessa glaring at each other, and as for Asahi—the betrayer—he was protected from everything by the barrier he used.
Not even dust could touch him.
But now was not the time to scold him. I had a battle to witness.
"Thanks for the save, Mercy..."
I was grateful to my guardian spirit for saving me again. I thanked him as if he were a real person, forgetting that he was there for me and me alone.
I wasn't acting like a master at all.
His sole purpose in this world is to protect me, and if I don't realize that sooner, it might come to make his job harder.
But I was getting there. The fact that I recognized him as the only person who could save me from Tessa's magic was proof of that.
He looks back at me and nods his head, accepting the gratitude.
"So that is the samurai spirit of yours, huh? Impressive."
Tessa was not surprised to see Mercy; in fact, she was even grinning with anticipation. It's as if she were expecting him or hoping to see him at some point.
Tessa must have known about my guardian spirit beforehand, not my name, because if she knew my name, it would have meant she was watching my every move, or Asahi was the one who told her everything before today.
But she didn't know anything about me except that I had a samurai guardian spirit.
"Let's see what it can do, shall we?"
"..."
"Keep in mind, kid. If your spirit falls, death awaits you."
She tied up her kimono, preparing to launch another attack, but this time she was preparing it for Mercy.
Seeing her so full of pride and anger over a misunderstanding of which I have no clue really pissed me off. And let's not forget that she was about to throw a major fireball at me not so long ago.
"Death's Mercy! Don't lose to her, got it?"
"As you wish, master."
His words were fierce and filled with devotion.
This was the first-ever order I issued to him, and he affirmed it without hesitation, but with confidence.
He was a spirit, but I could tell that it made him happy.
The battle that would decide my fate began with Tessa creating a bow and arrow of fire. It was a Japanese longbow, and she drew it with meticulous care, as if she had studied the profession.
She drew an arrow of fire and released it in our direction. The arrow shot at a high speed, but it was still easy to follow, all thanks to the training those three put me through back at the mansion.
Mercy drew his black katana, ready to intercept the arrow.
When the arrow was closing in to connect, and Mercy was ready to intercept it, it split into eight separate shots.
I gasp at the sight of them. They caught us off guard.
Some of the arrows were clearly aimed at me from behind Mercy.
"Right, I forgot to mention. You are also a part of this battle."
She was happy with herself.
As the arrow turned into a volley of them, Mercy didn't flinch one bit. He gripped his sword with his right hand.
Normally, you would think that an attack of this magnitude would be best deflected with a barrier or an attack of the same magnitude, but not for this samurai.
He deflected all the arrows with just his sword. Before they could even pass him, he sliced and parried all of them.
As the arrows flew to the sides and exploded, he ran forward, with his right hand holding the katana and his left hand holding the scabbard of the black katana on his waist.
Now it was our turn to fight back.
First, he only attacked her with swings of his sword, and as expected, she dodged them with ease, even preparing to use the bow of magic in her hand again.
She got far enough to draw the bow and fire a volley of arrows at him. This time, she didn't fire one arrow that split into multiple ones. No, she fired multiple ones from the start, drawing faster than any normal person could.
Mercy was pursuing her when he changed his attack style. He didn't wait for the arrows to reach his inner space like last time. He ran towards her while blocking and slicing only the arrows that posed a threat to him.
"You're skilled, samurai, but not skilled enough."
Her acknowledgement was genuine. Even his skills were mediocre to her, but he was still challenging her might, matching it without fail.
So she decided to increase the velocity of her drawing and firing. This caused Mercy to stop his pursuit and deflect all the arrows that came his way while standing.
The fight was at a standstill. Even if Tessa fired a massive number of arrows, they would not connect. So someone had to change their strategy.
Tessa kept firing her arrows with increased velocity from the last, and Mercy kept on deflecting them.
However, the standstill was about to change.
Tessa grinned, showing her inner satisfaction and cunning.
Although I could follow their every movement at first, this time the exchange was so intense I couldn't make anything of the situation.
From the ground that Mercy was standing on, the floor was glowing as if it were being hit with light, and those fast arrows were intentional.
They were there to make him focus only on them.
"Watch out! Above you!"
I screamed as soon as I saw it, but it was already close. Evading it would be impossible.
From above, a gigantic ball of fire is falling aimed at Mercy.
This time, the ball of fire was like a meteor, a meteor made of flames.
He couldn't contend with two powerful magics at the same time, let alone deal with the one above his head while dealing with the fast volley of arrows from in front, and Tessa was not going to let him off the hook.
She made sure of that.
While I was thinking that the end is near, I caught a glimpse of Mercy's lips moving. He was mumbling to himself.
"What are you gonna do now, samurai?"
Tessa was really enjoying herself in the fight. She was smiling since the fight began and still is, a sign of confidence in her abilities.
She thought she had him right where she wanted him, but she forgot one crucial thing. Death's Mercy is a magical spirit.
As he finished mumbling, and the fireball was getting closer, he took advantage of the slight delay in Tessa's volley of arrows to send a shockwave her way by slicing the air in front. The shockwave destroyed all the magic arrows on the route, and this gave him a chance to complete the incantation he was mumbling.
He spun his katana and faced it down to the ground. He stabbed his katana on the ground and said.
"Shadow of the dark side of the moon."
His sword glowed, but the glow was faint due to its dark color absorbing most of the light, and a dome-like semicircle with a radius three times his height appeared.
The magic was activated just in time before the ball of fire connected. The fire magic, Tessa set as a trap, approached the dome, and she looked ready to claim one hit for a zero. Even we, the spectators, were holding our breaths waiting to see what would happen.
It connected with the top of the dome, and what we thought was a barrier was actually not. The ball passed through, and when Tessa was about to grin even further with satisfaction, something we did not expect happened.
The moment it entered the semicircle, parts of the fire magic that entered went out like they were being extinguished.
Every part of the fireball that entered the semicircle was being extinguished without fail.
Eventually, the flame went out before it even fully entered the space.
"What just happened?"
Asahi was the first to speak after that show. He was still inside the barrier he had erected for himself.
We were all surprised, and though we did not ask the question out loud as Asahi did, we were surely asking the same thing.
Tessa even gasped.
"My flames went out?"
She said the obvious.
All of us stood there and rained it in for a moment. We could do this because no one made a move after that.
Then, as if she didn't like how her flames were put out and her trap failing, she fired another barrage of flame arrows. However, like the fireball before, the arrows all went out the moment they entered the space.
Mercy didn't just stand there to watch as the flames were being put out. He removed the katana from the ground and took the change in momentum to lunge forward, the semicircle magic he made following him along.
This caught Tessa off guard, causing her to lose her focus. Though with all the strikes he dished out, she dodged all of them, only managing to land a hit on her kimono.
"You almost had her. Keep going!"
I cheered him on.
He landed one hit, even though it wasn't fatal; that one was enough to make my confidence in him soar high.
"Tch! I never thought I'd be at a disadvantage like this..."
She was furious and frustrated.
The battle momentum had turned against her, and Mercy was the first to land a hit, even though it was just on her clothes.
This crushed her confidence from the start of the battle, and it did not sit right with her to be humiliated in that manner after that display of confidence and strength.
"What exactly did you do to my magic? There is no way all my attacks would just go out like that, so there must be something about that magic of yours that interfered with mine.
So what is it?"
"..."
Death's Mercy did not answer. He just remained standing after cutting her kimono in his usual dignified and elegant manner.
"Not gonna answer, huh?"
She just closed her eyes as if it didn't matter if she knew the reason or not, but knowing would likely turn the tide of the battle back to the standstill from before.
"Air and manacules..."
"Huh?"
Asahi, out of nowhere, started speaking, saying random words.
"I think I know what happened. It involves air and manacules."
"You do?"
I looked at him, and Tessa also reacted to his claim with a curious look.
"Inside that barrier, or space, the samurai manipulated it so that the air is thinner with less oxygen, and not to mention the fire manacules that are normally abundant in the surrounding area are weak inside that space as well.
So the conditions that powered Tessa's magic changed the moment the flames entered his space."
"And you got all that from one look? Wow, I see you're still a genius... Wait, why did you tell her?! Now she knows the secret...!"
In the background, Asahi and I got into an argument. Because why would he say all those things? This could change the tide of battle in her favor.
And just when it seemed like we would be claiming victory soon, he had to go and give her information to change her strategy.
While we were still arguing, we heard Tessa say something that dawned a new realization on us.
"Is that right, you managed to find a counter for my flames. Fufufu... You're good. But still, those flames were nothing but an introduction."
In this battle, both of them were holding back their might. And we would soon see just how strong Tessa really is.
Now with her flames extinguished, she would have no choice but to unleash a different power to fight back.
One that is much stronger, and Mercy cannot counter.
